United States Signs Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements

On 19th January, the outgoing State Department Legal Advisor, John Bellinger, signed the Hague Convention (of 30 June 2005) on Choice of Court Agreements on behalf of the United States of America. The USA is the first country to sign the Convention, with Mexico also a party to the Convention through accession. The status table of the Convention can be found on the HCCH website, as well as the preliminary documents, and the explanatory report prepared by Hartley and Dogauchi.

Is this the first of many? Will other countries follow the USA’s lead, and sign up to the Convention? I very much doubt it, but you are welcome to disagree with me in the comments.